[StarKL] Veiled threat to nation building

The Star, Kuala Lumpur
13 November 2005

Veiled threat to nation building

By SHAMSUL AKMAR

IN 1997, a Year One Malay schoolgirl in Selayang came home crying. She
cried because she had lied to her teacher, a deed her strict parents
had said was unforgivable. But she was forgiven after she explained
that she had lied to her ustazah (religious teacher) about her mother
donning the tudung.

“My friend who admitted that her mother did not wear the tudung was
told by the ustazah to go home and tell her mother that it was sinful
not to don the tudung.

“My friend was embarrassed. When it came to my turn, I lied and said
that mum wears the tudung,” she explained to her parents. The little
girl who lives in Selayang was born to parents who neither opposed nor
supported the wearing of the tudung.

In 2004, the girl entered secondary education in a national school
also in Selayang. She was asked if she was a Malay. When she said she
was, the teacher told her that it was wajib (compulsory) for her to
wear the tudung.

Her father was not satisfied and went to the school to ask if it was
compulsory for his daughter to wear the tudung. And if it was, was it
a directive from the Education Ministry?

The teacher said it was not compulsory and neither was there any
directive from the Ministry. The matter should have ended there but
the next day, the girl was scolded by another teacher and accused of
being keras kepala (stubborn).

The father, tired of the whole thing, applied to transfer his daughter
to an all-girl's school in Selayang where the student as well as the
teacher composition was more multi-racial compared with the previous
school.

The girl is now in the new school and does not seem to face much
pressure to don the tudung, at least for now.

There have been other such stories shared among friends and families.
It is quite baffling that such an issue could have persisted for years
and is not about to come to an end anytime soon.

In fact, the tudung issue has taken numerous dimensions, twisting and
turning, dragging and choking anyone that walked its path.

Hence, it was not surprising that when the International Islamic
University required its female students receiving their scrolls during
convocation to don the tudung or headscarves for non-Muslims, it was
viewed suspiciously by the non-Malay community.

The question is whether that policy should be viewed as a religious
statement or merely a specific dress code that IIU had instituted from
its inception.

If it had been there from the start and made known to prospective
students, then those wanting to study there would have considered
whether they are comfortable with such requirements.

If the policy was introduced recently, then it must only be applied to
those who were aware of it when they joined the IIU. It should not be
applicable to those who entered IIU prior to the policy.

The problem in the IIU is actually the tip of the iceberg and is
expected to come to public debate as it involves non-Muslims who are
suspicious of the motives of the dress code.

The bigger issue is actually where the government stands on the tudung
issue. It is not a government policy to impose the wearing of the
tudung but some employees have taken it upon themselves to enforce it
on their Muslim subordinates.

Some schoolteachers are the worst of the lot. They prey on children
who have yet to determine their religious conviction.

Worst positioned are those whose parents are believers in letting
their children make their own choices, neither forcing them to don the
tudung nor stopping them if they wanted to.

Many of these children succumb to peer pressure and become ashamed of
their parents who do not don the tudung.

The values these children learn from such circumstances are anything
but noble.

And the Muslim authorities are keeping mum on the issue, hoping that
it will blow over. To comment on it, either way, can result in a
political disaster.

Supporting the tudung cause may result in Umno losing the support of
non-Malays and less orthodox Malays, but opposing it will earn them
the wrath of the Islamists. Hence, the shrouded opinions.

Shamsul Akmar is a writer and a journalist of almost two decades. He
writes on political Islam, Malay politics and regional and
international issues.

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